Halfway Covenant

The Halfway Covenant was a form of partial church membership adopted by the Puritans of Massachusetts as a compromise in 1662. To allow anyone to become a church member without conversion was an unthinkable retreat from fundamental Puritan doctrine, so, in 1662, to increase church membership, unconverted children of "saints" were permitted to become "halfway" church members. Like regular church members, they could baptize their infants, but they could not participate in communion or have the voting privileges of church membership. Puritan churches came to terms with the lukewarm piety that had replaced the founders' burning zeal.